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false advertising

Jessica Alba’s The Honest Company has agreed to pay $1.55 million to resolve a class-action lawsuit that accused the brand of using sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) in its products — an organic chemical derived from coconut oil and found in common items like laundry detergent and toothpaste — despite the fact that the company had pledged not to include that ingredient. [More]

If you sell a product that has glowing reviews from dependable expert critics, you’d probably want to point that out to customers. Or… you could just go ahead and make up a bunch of fake “expert” sites filled with fictional reviews. [More]

When you turn on the TV and there are one of those infomercials that pretend to be a talk show, you’re probably justified in questioning the bona fides of anyone endorsing the product being sold. Case in point: A joint pain supplement that not only made unsubstantiated claims about being able to treat medical conditions like fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis, but which failed to mention that the doctor endorsing the supplement also just happened to be married to the company’s owner. [More]

We all know by now that Volkswagen’s “Clean Diesel” vehicles were anything but, and that the carmaker deliberately used so-called “defeat devices” to cheat on emissions tests. Now, in an effort to get compensation for people who purchased one of these dirty diesels, the Federal Trade Commission has sued VW, accusing the company of deceptive advertising. [More]

If you’re going to casually advertise that your competitor’s product contains an insecticide, you should probably expect to get sued. Just ask the lawyers at General Mills, who are none to happy about Chobani ads claiming that Yoplait’s competing yogurt contains a product used to “kill bugs.”[More]

Those two-year mobile phone contracts we all signed for so long became a relic of the past pretty quickly over the last two years, with national providers all abandoning ship. T-Mobile moved to “contract freedom” almost two years ago now, and has since then continued to make a big deal over the fact that their users are neither locked into time-locked agreements nor face old-school high data overage fees. [More]

When Microsoft teamed up with Machinima to launch a promotion that paid affiliated YouTubers for shilling for the Xbox One console in January 2014, we questioned whether any potential negative publicity and regulatory hassle would be worth it. Turns out, we were right to think the company would face scrutiny from federal regulators, as the Federal Trade Commission says it has cleared Microsoft of wrongdoing and settled charges that Machinima pushed videos of people endorsing the video game without disclosing they had been paid. [More]

It seems some of that infamously fuzzy Target math finally caught up with the retailer, as the company has agreed to pay $3.9 million to settle a false-advertising lawsuit brought by prosecutors in California. [More]

Because you can’t believe every cartoon that says drinking a can of energy drink will cause you to suddenly sprout wings and float into the sky, Red Bull has agreed to pay more than $13 million to settle a lawsuit that was seeking class-action status to settle claims of false advertising. [More]

Infusing ladies’ undergarments with caffeine does not make them weight loss aids, as it turns out. This news may not come as a surprise to most of us, but two companies were trying to sell just such a product with the claim that it would indeed have a slimming effect. The not-so-magical underwear has made one thing significantly smaller, though: the bank accounts of the two companies in question, which have reached a $1.5 million settlement with the Federal Trade Commission. [More]

Overcharging customers $0.50 might not seem like a huge deal, but when the lower price was circulated in an advertisement, well, that constitutes false advertising. Such was the case for Walmart stores in New York recently. [More]

The funny thing about a going-out-of-business sale? That means your store is actually going out of business, and thus needs to offload its remaining products before it does. It’s not a time to get everyone to rush over and buy new stuff just because sales are sluggish. That’s why New York State Attorney General Eric “Spiderman” Schneiderman went after a furniture store holding bogus sales while still staying in business. [More]